Roseville police subdue deranged gunman

Roseville police demonstrated “unbelievable restraint” in subduing a mentally disturbed gunman who fired shots into the air as he attempted to goad officers into killing him, the department’s police chief said Sunday.

The incident took place Friday night on the 26000 block of Ridgemont Street near Interstate 696 and Gratiot Avenue when a 41-year-old man called the emergency dispatch center to say he had a gun and would kill the first police officer he saw, according to a news release.

Police were eventually able to take him into custody after using shocking him with a Taser.

“It should be noted that the officers of the Roseville Police Department showed unbelievable restraint as on several occasions, this man’s actions justified the use of deadly force,” police Chief James Berlin said in the release.

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According to police, dispatchers received the call about 7:30 p.m. from the gunman. As dispatchers tried to reason with the man over the phone, officers set up a perimeter around the house.

The man walked out of the house at about 8 p.m. armed with a handgun and pointed it up and down the street before firing a single round into the air. He screamed for officers on the scene to shoot him.

Berlin said the officers had concealed themselves from the gunman and did not return fire “despite the obvious danger.” The gunman went back into the house where sporadic phone contact was maintained between him and a police negotiator for the next hour.

About an hour later, the gunman again exited the house and began walking down the street and demanding officers kill him. Since he did not know the officers’ location, he never was able to directly point the weapon at an individual officer, but he continued to wave the gun while trying to provoke them into responding.

As he approached sergeants Stephen Starr and Brian Shock, he fired a shot and they used the Taser to incapacitate him.

The gunman was transported to a local hospital for mental evaluation and likely will not face criminal charges due to his mental condition, Berlin said in the release.

“Our officers, despite the immediate and deadly threat they faced with a mentally unstable individual waving a gun around, withheld their fire and allowed the use of a Taser device to take this subject into custody without bloodshed or loss of life,” Berlin said in the statement.